Bug Out Boat Survival: The Post Apocalyptic Survival Trailer Pod (Aftermath Survival Book 3)

by Ron Foster

  “Dang sure will be glad to park this thing somewhere on land and forget about it for a while!” Sam said as its jerky bobbing motion jerked the boat back here and there if it got to floating sideways or something.

  “I’m ready to hook up that icemaker!” Lori said once again complaining of the oppressive heat that had plagued them on this trip.

  “Me and you both!” Sam said as he just floated a bit and he attempted to get a compass bearing on where he thought they should be going.

  “I think we should try to find us a place to hang out on the beach a day or two once we get past the civilization in Destin. I’m not up for dealing with any people just yet.” Sam declared and told Lori since they had a breeze blowing and some clear water finally they should try sailing for a bit.

  Lori tied the Wind Paddle on the front of the boat and laughed with joy as it instantly popped out and filled from the strong breeze blowing. Sam gave his own shout of encouragement and hollered WHEEE! as the small sail began pulling them along. They made pretty good progress and were even rewarded with the sight of a little white wake flowing in back of the boat.

  “Wow that thing is really scooping up the breeze! I’m anxious to see what it does when we get to the Gulf!” Sam said enjoying the sitting in the back of the boat using the trolling motor for a rudder instead of working the throttle.

  Sam had called Newport Vessels and asked them about one key sailing point that had come to his mind when choosing a trolling motor and that was the question about how long he could use his trolling motor as primary propulsion. Most trolling motors are not made to be run for long lengths of time due to overheating. He was very pleased to find out this particular freshwater/saltwater model he had chosen could not only do dual duty as Sam and Lori’s outboard but it also could be run for an indeterminate amount of time as long as the motor internally did not get over 500 and some odd degrees. Sam could not imagine putting that kind of a load on any kind of a trolling motor even as full as he was and at 55 lb. thrust capacity he was overdoing the size of the motor he had chosen anyway. Funny thing about trolling motors, more thrust does not mean you can go faster, it just means you can pull more. Go look it up, I won’t bore you with the details here but it’s kind of like having two horses, one big one and one little one, that can run as fast as each other but one can just pull more. Strange but true!

  “I’m really enjoying this! Do you mind if I try a couple of maneuvers with the sail to get the feel for it? It’s been a long time since we had open water and wind blowing enough to use it.” Lori asked grinning while she manipulated the lines to the sail that she just popped up to play with and give her and Sam a break from the relentless driving downstream they had been doing.

  “Oh sure, do whatever you want! I don’t have anywhere to be today do you, Lori?” Sam said with a laugh as Lori tried her hand at tacking back and forth across the large channel of water.

  “This is great! I might even want to look around here for a place to camp for the night so be looking at the shore when we get closer, we’ve got to be getting close to the Gulf now but I haven’t seen any houses or cleared areas that tells me we’re either in a flood plain or they haven’t run the power back here yet.” Sam said blissfully, sitting back while Lori sailed them around listening to the slow lapping of the water against the boat’s hull.

  “Heads up, Sam! I hate to disturb that siesta that it looks like you were about to take but we got company coming out of that inlet we came out of looks like a mile or two back.” Lori said pointing in back of Sam.

  “Ah, hell! Wasn’t expecting company today.” Sam said adjusting the brim to his hat. Hold that sail down for a minute, not like they haven’t seen that bright red thing if they are looking but you can never tell. It always amazes me that red is a color that animals can’t see oftentimes and that the Swiss Apenflauge uniforms that have that color in it disappear from human eyes also.l” Sam said reaching for the binoculars and checking out a pair of men with a canoe.

  Lori got her own more powerful binoculars out of her sea bag and scrutinized the pair and advised Sam that they looked like they were fully loaded and probably doing the bug out thing the same as they were.

  “Aw, Sam, check them out! They have on one of those sail paddle doohickeys same as us! I don’t think they saw ours because they are laughing and grinning just like we were when our sail went up!” Lori said as all of a sudden a blue bubble popped up in front of the canoe’s bow.

  “Yeah, it looks like they are having themselves a real good time! I wish I knew who they were or their intentions but I’m not up for just saying how do you do to strangers because they were smart enough to have some of the same alternate propulsion methods as we have.” Sam said thinking about putting his trolling motor on high speed and making some distance from the newcomers to his and Lori’s salt water sailing channel.

  “Oh they see us now!” Lori said lowering her binoculars and waving at them.

  “Dang, Lori! Quit being so friendly! We don’t know them from Adam’s housecat. Pop your sail back out, baby. They are still far enough back I’m not worried about them and they might get a laugh out of us having the same cool sail as them.” Sam said raising his binoculars back up to watch their faces as Lori deployed the sail kind of like an instant pop-up tent in front of the boat to catch the wind.

  “Yea, they are pointing and laughing and waving too but we aren’t slowing down to say any how do you do’s. They are making a lot better time than we are in that canoe than we are with that Tetra Pod trailer. Guess I’m going to have to crank up that trolling motor soon so they don’t catch up.” Sam said looking back at them one more time and wondering if the man that was in the front of the boat using low power binoculars would be foolish enough to try to use that scoped hunting rifle next to him for higher magnification.

  If he touched that thing, in Sam’s opinion, it was aggressive action no matter what Sam thought he might be doing and seeing the man astern shake his head ‘no’ and waving his hand in the direction of that rifle must be exactly what the guy might have been thinking about doing.

  That gave Sam a huge measure of relief because evidently they weren’t wishing anybody ill and were trying to be civil about meeting others on the waterway. Of course also it could be they saw Lori with that scoped rifle in the front of his boat and figured out they didn’t want to see who the best shot was. Either way, Sam wasn’t going to hang around and find out and wished to widen the gap between them.

  “Lori, I think we probably ought to take that sail down and go back to the trolling motor for a while or they will be catching up with us in the next half house or so as slow as we are dragging that raft in back of us.”

  “Aw, Sam, you said they didn’t appear to be up to no good, just sailing along like we are. Hey, I got an idea that we haven’t tried yet!” Lori said grinning at Sam.

  “What’s that, darlin’?” Sam replied. “You thinking what I’m thinking?” Sam asked from the back of the boat.

  “Yeah I am! Time to put the DaSail out?”

  “Oh hell yeah! I have been wanting to do this for I don’t know how long! We have tried those sails each individually a time or two but it never seemed like we had enough wind and water to give it a good go yet. Let’s cheat a little bit first, tease them a mite!” Sam said reaching for his stand up paddle board paddle.

  SUP Paddles are meant to be used on craft that resemble big surfboards which are all the rage today. Specialized paddles such as these are longer than paddles that you would normally use in a canoe or have on board as spares on a Jon boat. There is also a heck of a lot that goes into the scientific design of the paddle face itself to increase speed and pulling power with less effort by the operator and reduced resistance to the water. These types of paddles go from the cheap plastic ones to full blown carbon fiber racing paddles that can cost you a pretty penny. Sam had one that in his opinion beat them all in usefulness. He had him something called a Sail Paddle and he was about to put
a big surprise on them boys in the canoe back there!

  “What I’m going to do here is stand up and start paddling and help that sail out a little bit to get us some more speed and see how they react to that.” Sam said with a smirk.

  “Yeah, I bet you won’t see them trying to stand up in a canoe and paddle, will you?” Lori said with a laugh.

  “No, that’s not likely but I sure would like to see them try it one time if they want to go swimming!” Sam said as he started deep stroking the paddle boat along like he was a Cajun fisherman pulling a pirouque in the bayou.

  “Tell me what’s happening! I can’t see in back of me and work the sail and look at them at the same time.” Lori said wondering what that little show they were putting on did to the imaginations of the canoe sailors in back.

  “The guy in the rear is starting to dip his paddle a little bit; I can’t tell much without putting this paddle down and picking up the binoculars but it’s looking like they want to maybe catch up a little bit or they are just taking advantage of the wind same as us. “ Sam said resuming his paddling.

  “When you going to MacGyver them?” Lori asked giggling.

  “In a little bit; be patient. I want to see what they are doing first. Tell you what , I’ll freak them out a little bit then sit down and start sculling this boat with the oar like I’m a Chinaman with a sampan and see how that does on them!” Sam said and sat down and started doing a figure eight motion that many Americans had forgotten how to do but was the main way of propelling a boat in many parts of Asia.

  “Since we are going downwind, I’m just going to tie this sail off and you can use that paddle to steer and I’ll scope them out with the binoculars for a minute.” Lori said doing so and then turning to watch the pursuing canoe.

  “Ha! The guy is doing the same thing I’m doing but he’s looking out of the clear spot in the Windsail with a pair of the binoculars at me!” Lori said giving him another wave.

  “I ain’t worried about them too much but then on the other hand, I don’t know if they are chasing or playing. I think it’s time to show them this is the first two masted Jon boat they will ever see!” Sam said chuckling as he twisted the top of his paddle and popped out 144” of sail all in one motion and quickly secured the bottom lanyard to the paddle as he resumed his stand up position and adjusted the end of the sail with his hand for maximum wind collection.

  “Woo Hoo! We are moving now!” Lori said looking back at the canoe with anticipation of what its occupants were doing after Sam magically produced an aerodynamic sail out of nowhere.

  “They are talking about it! The guy in the stern has got his paddle across his knees and is just sitting there laughing at the guy in front who is evidently asking him what it was you just did!” Lori said chuckling.

  “Yeah, I bet they never saw anything like that! I love this thing! Hang on a second; I’m going to show them a trick or two with it!” Sam said as he easily moved it from one side of the boat to the other and did some turns and crosswind sailing that most people wouldn’t even consider could be possible because he could control it so well.

  “Well that was fun! We are keeping our lead but I’m going to break down and run the trolling motor here in a little bit. They have a trolling motor on that canoe back there but since they aren’t using it, they are either saving their power or they have already used the battery juice up.” Sam declared.

  “Definitely no solar panels on it. I wonder what they think of ours?” Lori questioned.

  “Hard to say but that’s a good point. They know we have solar capabilities and they know we have a trolling motor so I guess they just think we were playing like they were. It would be fun to talk to them and discuss the finer arts of double sailing a Tetra Pod or single sailing a canoe but I have neither the time nor the willingness to do it. You know I’ve seen people with canoes just cross both paddles and tie a tarp on it for an emergency sail before. I say whoever is back there must have a bit of experience and tried a few things maybe to find that odd wind paddle piece of gear but I bet that they never in their farthest imagination have ever seen a paddle that could turn into a sail!”

  “You know what would be funny, baby? Is if they had seen me using our hand-crank trolling motor first and then the wind paddle and the icing on the cake would have been breaking out that ingenious sail paddle! I’m glad they don’t have a DaSail on that canoe or they could have probably passed us by now. Course on a canoe that paddle would really have served no purpose because it’s so long, I guess. Hard to say, I’ve seen people do things with canoes I never thought possible either.” Sam said closing his sail and just stuffing it back in the handle all in one motion without a crazy bunch of rolling or packing to have it instantly available again next time he wanted it.

  That thing was truly a marvel and increased the capabilities of their little Jon boat immensely.

  https://www.sailpaddle.com/

  The Bris hand operated manual boat propeller was a really cool idea and it could really push the boat along but Sam had to give it a little tweak to get it to work for him satisfactorily. The designer had made the thumb screw lock that positions or restricts movement of the rudder in fashion that didn’t allow Sam to tighten it down satisfactorily for him to lock it in the driving straight or moving forward position. This allowed it to loosen and would have you trying to hold the tiller still with your free hand so as to not end up going in a circle as it shifted no matter how much you tighten it from right to left while cranking. To be fair all this required was to drill a shallow hole in the shaft so the set screw had a place to go in and gain enough purchase to lock it in the forward or backward travel direction. The screw now was allowed for its end to just go into the shaft a little. The manufacturer should have just put an indent or a flat on the shaft but they don’t. The inventor is reviewing this comment. Still a very neat product and it does work to push the boat along. Pretty neat to have a hand operated trolling and everyone that saw Sam playing with it in his county lake wanted one.

  Somebody might figure out how put one on a canoe but I think they have enough problems fitting a trolling motor on them if it’s not a square back. The Bris propeller works pretty good on Zodiac like inflatable boats though.

  Canoes have been staples of water transport in North America for as long as there have been humans living here .A heavily loaded canoe is not nearly as stable as a flat-bottomed Jon boat. Spend enough time in a canoe and eventually you will get wet. Fail to tie your gear in securely and you will donate it to whatever lurks at the bottom of the lake. Additionally, like the Jon boat, a canoe or kayak is a rigid vessel that takes up a lot of space when stored. That is unless you have a Tetra Pod!

  it can be kept out of the way in the corner of the garage yet remain quickly deployable should the weather turn foul and the floodwaters rise, if you needed to bug out and of course it’s great for just general camping and fishing.

  12

  SIGNS OF THE TIMES

  Lori and Sam had begun seeing signs of civilization rather quickly as they got to the part of the river that started to open up getting closer to the mouth of the bay. They had passed many remote houses on their way down the twisty river way, small fish camps, run down cabins, great expansive and expensive houses with large plantation like farms and even a houseboat or two. Mostly though the river had been miles and miles of nothing but a variety of trees covering a multitude of different habitats they had passed through from high bluffs, sandbars, snaggy shores to cypress swamp and back to open beautiful river emptying into the gulf.

  The journey for the past eight days had been long and arduous due to the stifling heat. The timing of the trip was based on their needs and conditions and hadn’t been well thought through before going on this adventure. They had treated this bug out like any other camping trip, not rushed, waking up when they wanted to but waking earlier and earlier with the rhythm of the woods and the break of dawns light.

  Last night’s journey although pleasurab
le, was another moment of light suppression and looking out for other people’s campfires. Sam need not have worried so much about the canoe that was somewhere back in his wake and look for their fire as Lori and he had seen several fires dotting both sides of the river and marveled at this evidence of survivors evidently camping out. This point of conjecture between Lori and Sam was mostly what they talked about all evening before turning in. Most of those campfires that they assumed they were seeing, burned a lot later into the night than were necessary just for cook fires. If a person had a home he would assume that they would go outside and just utilize a campfire or their grill for cooking purposes and not for the socializing or lighting effect that campers would use. They mentally tried to recreate the shoreline in their memories of where these glimpses of light and fire in the dark might be. Some fires you could see were further back and more dim due to the trees of their location but Sam guessed those would be fires that were next to some of the homes they had seen along the way whereas Lori said they were fires closer to the beach areas, could be other campers or maybe cook fires also because a lot of those fancy piers had fish cleaning stations and grills next to them. This conversation of who does what and where they are at got quite speculative as they tried to remember landmarks faintly remembered only by size or landscape feature. For example they had this giant looking estate type house that they both agreed on as first location because it was directly across from the point that they had entered the brackish water that flowed to the Gulf. That thing was a mansion and a half: with big antebellum columns spanning the back of it like it was made to face the water rather than the road leading to it. The front of that particular expanse of property was well cleared of any trees or cultivation and probably was once a well manicured lawn at one time but a couple of expensive Bayliner boats still hung in its boat shed and a rather large sailboat was moored on a buoy some distance from it, freely floating in the water.